


Boar's Head

by dieselfuels



Category: Metal Gear
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-11
Updated: 2015-10-21
Packaged: 2018-04-25 21:29:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4977196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dieselfuels/pseuds/dieselfuels
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ocelot and Eli develop a close, mentored relationship out of necessity.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. October, 1980

_October, 1980_

A cool autumn breeze whistled through the sleepy, midwestern town as the afternoon became dusk and the sky reflected the autumn trees. Reds and yellows shadowed the abandoned parking lot and Kaz feverishly rapped his fingers against the beat up car he had drove over a thousand miles just to gather an address. He started wondering if this rendezvous was another mind game and huffed angrily, checking his watch for the third time. Another ten minutes passed and the merc grew increasingly agitated, chewing on his cheeks in frustration.

A black Chevy pulled into the lot, finally, parking at the opposite end. A tall figure exited the vehicle, sauntering out towards Miller.

Kaz pursed his lips in anger, and then sputtered furiously, “You’re late!”

The man stopped in his tracks, leaving a huge gap between himself and the mercenary, “I asked you to come in person so I could tell you in confidence where Snake is. If you want to throw a tantrum, again, I can just leave. I still have business to take care of.”

He slumped over the hood of the car, sighing heavily, “Let’s just get this over with, if you take any longer I’ll miss my flight.”

The informant grinned, “I’m glad we can agree on something for once.” There was a long pause as he pulled a slip of paper out of his pocket and slowly set it on the hood of Miller’s car before walking away slowly.

Kaz looked up, "Ocelot?”

The spy turned slowly, “Yeah.”

“How is he?”

“He’s still responsive. The nurse tried to give him a haircut last week and now his bangs look terrible.”

Miller winced, “He’ll be pissed.”

The two lingered for a moment before Ocelot headed back into the pick up. The evening started to set in rapidly, and the air became crisp. In the distance, the smell of a wood burning stove lingered in a convenience store parking lot. Ocelot approached a pay phone at the end of the parking lot and waited. Five minutes went by. Fifteen. The night almost ate the man whole as a full moon happily rose and hung in the sky like a heavy weight.

 

The phone finally rang. 

 

Picking up on the second ring, The interrogator answered flatly, “Eva.”

There was a hesitant response, “Ocelot.”

“Just tell me what you want.”

She sighed nervously, “One of the boys ran away. He-he’s in Africa. Please."

Ocelot glanced at his watch, “That’s not my jurisdiction. Have some sense.”

“I wouldn’t have asked you if this wasn’t-” She sniffled, “He’s seven years old, Ocelot. I'm begging you.”

The was a long pause as EVA tried to compose herself.

The spy sighed heavily, “Which one.”

“Eli. H-... His name is Eli. The one that looks like me. I can send you the last picture they sent me. I can- I can tell you why he ran away.”

“That would help.”

“Clark snapped at him during a check up and then he bit her and snuck out. They caught him a month back but, he ran off again. I know they were hurting him but I don’t know how. You can see it in his eyes in all these pictures. I wanted to tell myself he just had those sad, clear eyes like- … Nevermind. It’s just obvious now.”

“How long has this been going on?” The spy started picking at some masking tape somebody put on the phone booth, 

“Two months. Almost three now.”

“Eva.” He paused cautiously, “I can’t guarantee that kid is alive. But I’ll… Keep an ear out. I need to focus on Snake right now. I already have work up to my neck.”

Another long silence complimented the windy night.

 

“Adam, I expect you to be smart enough to piece this together but, if you don’t get to him first it will bite everyone on the ass. Including Snake. If- If you find Eli just tell me if he’s dead or not. I know if you brought him to me they’d kill all three of us.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”


	2. June, 1984

The low humming of Quiet flicking the bars of her cell echoed through the medical platform. It was a little past lights out on a humid, summer night. The guard watching over her had slipped by to go take a smoke break, leaving the sniper in the bored darkness. She started to nervously chew on the inside of her cheek, feeling like the cage was twice as small than it actually was. The air was thick and heavy, humid with the summer heat and ocean mist an she was restless with energy, wishing there was an impromptu mission to take care of. 

The heavy patter of small footsteps rang above the sniper, sliding seamlessly down the stairs.

“Quiet!”  A familiar face popped into the bars beside her bed.

She forced a tired smile. Eli.

He handed her a small, wrapped candy ever so carefully, “I heard that old man likes to eat… So I thought maybe you would too.”

She looked at the treat and then to her small friend, giving a single nod before hiding it in her pillowcase. Quiet lingered her gaze on Eli and then pointed to him, covering her right eye before motioning to her heart.

“Did I find out? No I- I always knew.” He paused and then frowned, “Anyway, I know but they’re still in the dark. Ocelot is on to me but he’s smarter than Miller and my father combined, maybe. They haven’t gotten the test results back.”

Eli sat on the cold steel floor and the two enjoyed a comfortable silence for a moment, “I wanna run away again but, I don’t know where. Doctor Emmerich is trying to bait me and my men into repairing that ugly robot of his. He’s of no use to me so I see no point. I thought about staging a coup but, there’s only a few of us and almost a thousand of them. Even with the metal gear they still have tanks and gunships and… And my father.” Eli spit on the ground, “I’m trapped again.”

The sniper reached out of the cell and ruffled the tiny soldier’s hair, smiling weakly as he looked up at her.

Eli rested his chin on his knees, pulling them into his chest, “Does he talk to you?”

Quiet shrugged and pointed her eyes upward, as if to say “sometimes”.

“About me?”

She shook her head and Eli unexpectedly took the dangling hand from the cell and held it gently, he sighed, rubbing his dirty knee feverishly with his other hand, “I wonder… I wonder if I had a mom. Or if I was grown in a vat. Maybe they  killed her because I ran away.”

Slow, heavy footsteps started to come down the stairs. Quiet pulled her hand back into the cell and Eli jumped up, his heart racing.

“There you are.”

Ocelot.

Quiet exchanged a brief look with her visitor before he was manhandled by the arm up the stairs, squealing in anger while being dragged back to the command strut. He thrashed and bit, howling and cursing with pure rage. A recruit asked Ocelot if he needed help over the commotion and was met with “if he pops his arm out of place that’s his fault”. The noise soon roused anybody within earshot and it felt like half the base was staring at the two, neither of them embarrassed by the scene they were causing.

“Sit down!” Ocelot flung the kid into his office, slamming the door before rubbing his eyes and temples furiously.

Eli slowly got into one of the chairs in front of the cluttered, metal desk. A worn photo was taped to the wall. He squinted, unable to tell from his angle but, it was a much younger Ocelot with Big Boss and a woman. The three of them were posed around a motorcycle.

“I need you to do something for me.”

Eli huffed, watching Ocelot approach the other side of the desk.

“In return, I can give you something.”

“Right, and what could you possibly offer me? Extra dessert during dinner? Stay up an hour later? Please.”

Ocelot unlocked a drawer in his desk and pulled out a manila folder, “So you don’t want the truth?”

Eli wrinkled his nose, ”Excuse me?”

The two locked eyes and Ocelot opened the folder, “I thought you were the type who didn’t want to be lied to but... I guess I was wrong.”

“What are you on about?”

Ocelot, still keeping his eyes on the kid, took a picture from the folder and placing it on the desk, facing Eli. A woman. Dark brown hair and a friendly smile. Pale, standing beside the blonde woman from the other picture, the two in an obvious medical environment.

“Which one do you know?”

Eli turned pale, any inkling of coyness and defiance washed from him, his eyes were huge with fear as he slowly set the picture down on the desk, “Th-the one with brown hair. Doctor Clark. Her name is Doctor Clark.”

Ocelot raised his eyebrows, “You don’t know the blonde?”

Eli closed his eyes tight, shaking his head and swallowing.

“Alright.” Ocelot set another picture down, “Him, the one on the far left.” He pointed to an older man, standing beside him was a younger Big Boss. The two were in formal military uniform, posing with a medal and shaking hands. Neither of them were smiling, especially Boss, he looked more miserable than usual. The rest of the photo was other military officials and in the back you could catch a glimpse of a young Doctor Clark, hidden by men too tall and arrogant. “He probably looked sick when you saw him.”

Eli blinked slowly, “Once, maybe. He-” Eli sighed, “It doesn’t matter.”

“I wouldn’t be asking if it didn’t matter.”

“He told me I’m Big Boss’s clone. But not like… You would think. There’s another one, h-he has all the good parts and I have all the bad, that’s why they would test on me and hurt me with electrodes and awful medicine. They still wanted to make some good out of me but none of them really believed it was there. The man’s name was Zero, but I’m not sure if it’s him...”

A silence filled the room and Ocelot sighed, sitting down, “That’s him.”

Eli looked up, his eyes glassy and wide with fear, “Don’t take me back.”

The interrogator shook his head, “That was never my intention.”

“Is he going to kill me because he’s ashamed?”

Ocelot furrowed his brow, “Who?”

They locked eyes again and Eli looked away, his face sagging with defeat, “Can you just tell me the truth now.”

Ocelot splayed his hands out on his desk, unsure of where to begin, “Doctor Clarke, Zero, Boss- We all knew each other from a CIA mission back in the early 60’s. Boss never consented to the… Cloning project and we both left after he had found out. It created a huge rift between us and them. The Boss he- he never wanted either one of you. But, that doesn’t mean he hates you or wants you dead.”

Eli looked up, frowning, “What makes you so sure?”

Ocelot swallowed, “I know him.”

There was a long, heavy silence. The boy stared at his hands for a moment and then got up, exiting the office.

“Eli, wait.”

“Fuck off!”

The door slammed and the spy stood up, putting one of the pictures into his pocket and locking the rest of the folder back into the desk, slowly locking up for the night. He headed into the downstairs dorms and the atmosphere of the base settled into a quiet lull. It was a hot, dark night. One of the few on Mother Base that felt peaceful. For once nobody was cackling, banging on the metal walls or bickering, ready to get into a fist fight over the snack machine. The recruits weren’t even trying to use a coffee pot to cook hot dogs, a true miracle.

****  
  


“Come in.”

Ocelot cracked the door slowly, finding Snake in his bed, idly looking at a Russian gun magazine as DD slept by his feet. The soldier looked up at his old comrade, dog-earring the page he was on.

“How’s your Russian coming along?” the spy leaned on the door frame, rifling in the pocket of his jacket.

“I can still remember big chunks but, not things that matter.”

“Like?”

Boss paused for a moment, his gaze growing distant, “It doesn’t matter.”

Ocelot pulled out the photo and took a step into the room, shutting the door behind him, “I showed Eli this. He was able to identify Dr.Clark.”

The photo exchanged hands, Boss frowning heavily. He quietly handed it back after only looking briefly.

Ocelot was at a loss for words, “Well, I guess he’s already been our problem for a few months now. I don’t see how keeping him here would make things worse. Even if he knows.”

Boss remained silent, staring down the bed at DD.

“Maybe you could talk to Eli?”

“We’re both well aware we don’t like each other.”

“Boss-”

“Ocelot,” he looked up, the two making eye contact, “Go to bed.”

**  
**Loud screaming from down the hall erupted, something about stealing ramen packets. DD perked up and started barking as Snake stood slowly, mumbling “I’ll handle it” as he barged out his bedroom door.


	3. July, 1984

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I went ahead and updated parts 1 & 2 (on 10/14/15) so they read a little more fluidly as well as correcting the fact I started spelling "Clark" as "Clarke" suddenly. Not a huge update but, it's more cohesive.

Eli pressed his face gently against the cold window, watching the rain pour down on Mother Base in buckets, “Where do you think he lives?”

Ocelot continued to clean his pistol, not looking up from the desk in his room, “Who? Your brother?”

“Yeah.”

“Somewhere in the US, presumably.”

“Do you think I would win in a fight?” The boy glanced over his shoulder for a brief moment before looking back out over the control deck.

“Mmn, he doesn’t have as much field experience as you. Assuming he never left the states, that is.”

“So... I would win.”

“Theoretically, yes. I’d put my money down on The White Mamba.”

Eli snorted, watching a squad do a morning run down the strut, Boss leading them like a mother duck. The child soldier watched intently, studying his father’s gait and pacing, “Why don’t you get along with Kaz?”

Ocelot narrowed his eyes, “Why?”

“Yeah.”

“I’d say he has verbal diarrhea but, he obviously thinks about what he says just… Not very hard. Regardless, stay out of his hair. He’s not the type of person you want to mess with. The Boss trusts him… That’s all that matters.” Ocelot adjusted his desk lamp and started to polish the pistol with a dirty rag, feeling Eli’s gaze on the back of his neck.

“And what about The Boss?”

Ocelot looked up slowly, his mouth a thin line, “I’ve tried that. It didn’t end well.”

The boy drummed his fingers on the window, “How so?”

“I got my ass handed to me, just like you did.”

“And now you two are…”

Both of them looked over each other's shoulders, Ocelot gave his small counterpart a haughty look and returned to his gun.

Eli looked past the interrogator, glancing at a framed photo on his desk. Again, another picture of a young Big Boss and Ocelot, accompanied by the woman. This time the three were in formalwear, sitting around a beautifully decorated dinner table. Boss was in the middle of the two blondes, smiling almost awkwardly as they practically hung off of him.

“Who is she?”

“Hm?”

“That woman. She’s been in almost every old photo I’ve seen. How did you know her?”

A heavy silence bubbled, frothing up at Eli’s feet.

Ocelot scoffed, “Chinese spy that had similar goals as mine just- different ways to go about them.”

Eli scowled, “That’s hardly an answer.”

“Well, Who do you think she is?”

The small soldier drummed his fingers on the window’s glass. He was being tested again. Ocelot, seeing mounds of untapped potential, had taken the boy under his wing after their talk in June. The kid was clever, hands down, but lacked finesse. He didn’t, as Boss put it, “use his head”. He thought solely with his gut and was impulsive and terribly quick to anger. Being born into… This line of work meant you had to be collected. Calculated. Something Eli wasn’t but, could surely learn.

“She’s close to you and my father but isn’t here. Her body language in the pictures of the three of you is... Casual. Happy. In the other photo she seemed focused and… Was in a medical setting with Doctor Clarke...”

Ocelot looked up again, looking over at the boy, “You’re on to something. Trust yourself.”

Eli closed his eyes, trying to picture the medical photo, “She- she was a patient in the photo you handed me. You were even taken back that I had no idea who she was. She-” the boy opened his eyes in shock, realizing he had been sitting on the conclusion this whole time. “No.”

The gut-churning quiet from before resurfaced, flooding the room in a terrible feeling of hopelessness. Rain was still pattering on the window and the air conditioning kicked on, humming quietly.

“Eli-”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It never really occurred to me that you would care.”

Did he care in the grand scheme of things? Hell, Big Boss had done more for him than this woman. She never clothed Eli, fed him, or even attempted to train him. Nothing. The boy was covered in scars and had been caked in mud and fleas before he came to base. This woman, where ever she was, would she really have allowed Eli to get so beat up? To become so callous and ache so much? 

The boy took a step back from the window, inspecting the scars on his hands and forearms for a second, “Yeah, you’re right.”

The interrogator sighed, “Eli, are you familiar with the concept of schadenfreude?”

“No.”

The two looked up at each other, Ocelot now standing, “It’s a German expression, to derive joy in the pain of others.  There will be, and already are, people who want to see you suffer.”

he was met with an eyeroll, “Yeah.”

“Don’t let them have the satisfaction. It’s easy to lose yourself to anger, revenge, hatred- don’t let them know. Ever. Don’t give them the satisfaction.”

  
The child soldier rolled the thought around in his head, trying to process this information. He took a step away from the window, head hung low in thought as he slowly walked out of the room.


	4. August, 1984

Kaz led Ocelot down a long, metal hallway, screaming at the top of his lungs, “How did you let this happen? How!? You had one job, Ocelot!”  
The interrogator stopped in his tracks, scoffing, “Could you please tell me what that is? I seemed to have forgotten.”

The merc turned around slowly, his face dripping with anger as the two glared at each other. Ocelot blinked slowly, almost bored with the situation. Miller lowered his voice to a tolerable decibel, turning around and heading down the corridor, “Protecting the Boss. That’s all anyone asked you to do.”

Ocelot stood in silence, hearing Kaz screaming at a medic in the other room, criticizing the man’s burn treatment methods. The interrogator slowly caught up to the the scene taking place in a cramp doctor’s room, Snake sitting on the exam table, trying to reassure everyone he was alright. Ocelot hovered in the doorway as Kaz fussed over the situation, both him and Boss intensely close to each other and growling about Eli. The medic excused himself with clear embarrassment, shrinking his stature as he walked passed Ocelot.

“Kaz, if you don’t mind, I’d like to have a word with the Boss about Eli.”

The XO glared at the interrogator.

“Alone.”

Silence rushed into the room, Ocelot stepping inward flippantly as Kaz stepped out and the door slammed shut with malice.

Snake rummaged around in the pocket of his fatigues, pulling out his phantom cigar, “He set me on fire with a molotov.”  
“Eli? from the way I heard things you two got into an argument and you hit him.”

Both men made a long, empty eye contact as the room filled with the bitter odor of wormwood.

“Are you saying I did this to myself?”  
“I’m asking if you antagonized him.”  
Snake scowled, “Does it matter?”  
“There’s a better way to treat Eli like an equal than squabble like two of the recruits over junk food.”  
The spy was met with a low scoff, “I really don’t know what you see in that kid.”

The room seemed to grow twice as big and twice as dim as the two wallowed in an angry lull. Ocelot could feel the air become stagnant, trying to muster a way to articulate how he felt. He wanted mention he was cleaning up a mess that was more Boss’s than his. Mostly EVA’s. But mentioning that would be flat out petty. There was also the fact that all Eli knew was resentment and frustration. He was never given the chance to do anything but scratch and claw. But, The Boss wouldn’t care and probably turn this back on himself. It was best not to argue, anyway.

“You’ve always trusted my judgement before, I would hope you would now.”  
Snake stood up, throwing on his shirt, “Fine. The kid had three strikes. He’s down to one.”  
“Boss-”  
“He ran off to your office; go and fish him out. Put him on cleaning duty for a while. Just- keep him out of my hair.” Snake stepped out of the room, leaving Ocelot to consider everything.

the spy’s tongue felt swollen and numb as he started to exit the medical building, trying to comb the situation over in his mind. He and Snake rarely, if ever, disagreed on something so heavy. And, if this had been any other kid, it would have been easy to take The Boss’s side but… It was hard to comes to terms with the fact that Eli was a glaring reminder of a younger, more foolish Ocelot. The two had come from similar backgrounds. Snatched from their war hero parents by shadow organizations to be groomed into cogs. Something that Eli had been aware of almost all of his life and tried to escape, repeatedly, to no avail. Ocelot, however, was kept more in the dark, cultivated into adulthood with lies and half-truths. 

The door to Ocelot’s office had been busted open, hanging slightly ajar. “Eli?” He stepped inside, turning on the light to find the boy cowering in the corner, head tucked down into his knees. 

“Eli. You gotta get up.”

The boy lifted his head slowly, revealing a black eye that was freshly formed and running down the side of his face. He could barely keep it open from the swelling, whimpering as Ocelot kneeled down to touch it, “I hate him. I hate him so much.”  
“Can you tell me what happened?”  
Eli took in a heavy, short breath, “He’s gonna kill me.”  
The spy winced, “Then who would sneak candy over to Quiet?”

“You know about that?” The small soldier snapped back to reality, burying his head into his knees. Ocelot shifted his weight so they both sat side by side, the two of them with their backs against the wall.

“Yeah, She flicks them at the soldiers.”  
“...Good.”  
“I-” the spy sighed, “I wish I could tell you it’s going to be okay but it’s not. You’re on the Boss’s last nerve and Kaz is ready to have both our heads.”  
“This isn’t your fault.” Eli looked up, wiping his good eye.  
The spy looked away, “Can I tell you something?”  
“I guess.”   
“You don’t deserve this. I know you think you do but- you don’t.” 

The room settled down and the conversation died, hanging stagnant in the air. Two soldiers could be heard screaming outside about a stolen pair of socks. Ocelot groaned, threatening to come out there if they didn’t knock if off. He The spy looked over at Eli, sighing and running his thumb over the outer hem of his pants, “If I send you back to school in England would you stay or run away?”  
Eli snorted, “Do I have a choice?”  
“I guess you could stay here and get the shit kicked out of you some more.” The boy opened his mouth but Ocelot raised his voice, “The both of you are too stubborn to go on like this. At least level with me and admit this will end badly for everyone involved.”  
Eli sighed through his nose, “Yeah.”  
“I hate this so much. The arguing, the beating- it has to stop. I care about the both of you, do you know that?” Ocelot looked over at Eli, a pained look dripping from his face, “You’re such a smart, cunning person. But, the two of you are so headstrong over something neither of you have control over. If you want to kill him, fine, but at least try moving on with your life for now so you actually have the chance to.”

Eli gaped at the man beside him, “Y-You care about me?”  
“Yeah. That’s why I want you to go back to a real school and try to have some semblance of a normal life.” Ocelot stood up, straightening his outfit, “Do you want me to walk you to the medical bay for a ice pack?”  
“I’m fine.”

The two lingered in the room for a moment and Eli left, the two gesturing a “good bye” at the other. Ocelot looked over at the telephone and picked up the receiver gently, dialing slowly.

 

The other line picked up on the third ring.

“I found him. He was filthy and had fleas but, I found him.”

A long silence.

“...Are you sure?”  
“He put a name to Clark’s face. He knows about everything, even about the other boy.”  
“Where is he now?”  
Ocelot let out a long sigh, “Here. Until we can find a permanent solution. But, here’s safe for now. I’ll try and send a picture if he’ll hold still for one.”  
“I- Thank you. I’m in your debt.”  
Ocelot frowned, “No. Just Snake’s.” 

He hung up softly and started to nervously rub his face, checking the time on his watch before turning to look out the tiny window of his office, unsure of exactly how to proceed from here.


End file.
